Obama Order Seen Favoring Rules Chemical Industry Opposes

By Mark Drajem -
Aug 2, 2013

President Barack Obama took a step
toward siding with environmental and safety advocates -- and
against industry -- in laying out a broad plan to tighten
security measures at chemical plants yesterday.

Months after a fatal blast at a fertilizer depot in Texas,
Obama ordered his administration to develop proposals to keep
chemical facilities, refineries and water-treatment plants safe
from explosions or toxic releases. Safety advocates want the
government to mandate that explosives such as ammonium nitrate,
a widely used fertilizer implicated in the Texas blast, not be
used or require that it be stored in a way that lessens its
danger.

Adopting that strategy would be a blow to industry, which
has been trying to fend off wide-ranging mandates on the use and
storage of chemicals for a decade.

“I read this as saying we are still very much in the
game,” said Scott Nelson, a lawyer for Public Citizen, who
wrote a petition signed by safety groups calling for a mandate
on industry to use less-hazardous materials. “They are focused
on their regulatory authority.”

Obama yesterday ordered the Environmental Protection Agency
and the departments of Labor and Homeland Security to develop
proposals to lower the risks of toxic releases or explosions
such as the April 17 one at Adair Grain Inc. in West, Texas that
killed at least 14 people and injured more than 300.

Safety Debate

The blast prompted a debate over the adequacy of chemical-safety laws and regulations and led to criticism of the Obama
administration’s safety record.

Obama should be commended for “directing federal agencies,
for the first time, to organize themselves in a way that ensures
that the patchwork of regulations work for the American people
and actually keep our communities safer and more secure,”
Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the top Democrat
on the Homeland Security committee, said in a statement.

A Homeland Security official, David Wulf, told that
committee at a hearing yesterday that the agency was working to
speed up approval of security plans for chemical facilities, and
preparing long-overdue rule to track the sale of ammonium
nitrate, which was used by Timothy McVeigh in the 1995 Oklahoma
City bombing that killed 168.

Federal Mandate

“Some of these goals or themes are things we’ve been
supportive of,” said Richard Gupton, the senior vice president
of the Agricultural Retailers Association, which represents
depots such as Adair. (Adair itself was not a member.) “Having
better coordination is what needs to take place.”

Gupton said his group would oppose rules to require
chemical formulations with lower explosive risks, or limit the
quantities of chemicals that plants can hold to prevent risks.

“We would have concerns with a federal mandate,” he said.

Obama ordered federal agencies to come up with new options
to deal with “safe and secure storage, handling and sale” of
ammonium nitrate within 90 days. The order also gives those
agencies 90 days to identify best practices, “including through
the use of safer alternatives.”

“There is not much reading of the tea leaves needed
there,” Rick Hind, legislative director for the environmental
group Greenpeace, said. “We wanted regulations and guidance,
and that’s what’s happening.”

Calcium Carbonate

In its preliminary findings on the West blast, the U.S.
Chemical Safety Board said that the warehouse itself and the
bins holding the ammonium nitrate were combustible, made from
wood, and the building had no sprinkler system. It raised the
possibility of mixing ammonium nitrate with calcium carbonate,
which “practically eliminates any risk of explosion.”

Public health and safety groups renewed their request to
the administration yesterday to take far-reaching action.

A letter Hind handed to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy
called on the agency to use its authority under the Clean Air
Act to force chemical makers to use safer chemicals or
processes. “Prevention is the only fool-proof way to ensure the
safety of millions of people whose communities are needlessly in
danger,” according the letter, which was signed by the Sierra
Club, United Auto Workers and MoveOn.org.

Safer Management

The EPA is still considering using just that approach,
according to a letter it sent Representative Mike Pompeo, a
Kansas Republican. “EPA is currently evaluating various methods
of improving increased chemical plant safety including safer
management, increased preparedness management, and facility
design and operations,” the agency said in the letter, sent
yesterday.

When the final rules are issued, they may not be as onerous
as feared by some in industry, said Jamie Conrad, a lawyer who
works with the Society of Chemical Manufacturers & Affiliates.
“I know people in industry are quite alarmed,” he said in an
interview. “But this is aimed at facilities that were falling
through the cracks.”

The Fertilizer Institute, which represents 150 producers
and retailers, supports the president’s order, said Kathy
Mathers, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based trade group. The
order could help the government find regulatory gaps and
overlaps and spur retailers to follow best practices developed
by the national fire code, she said.

“After West, we realize there are some retailers that
don’t understand the complete extent of regulations they must
comply with,” Mathers said by phone. “If West had been in
compliance with the fire code, that could have made a
difference.”

“There is a role for everyone in ensuring the safety of
the communities that plants operate in,” Mathers said.